A LANCASTER lay minister will preach his final sermon this weekend - after 56 years as a reader at the city centre St Thomas's Church.

John Dart is preparing to give up his long-running role at the ripe old age of 93!

The retired chemist, pictured right, will have plenty to reflect on for his final address on Advent Sunday (November 28), for he says that decades of youth work have kept him young during his years at the church.

"I still work with younger members of the church and I always seem to go down well with them. They are always open to ideas and I find you can be almost brutally frank with them. You don't have to wrap things up," he says.

Mr Dart, originally from Canada, moved to Lancaster in 1936 when he joined Storey's as a senior chemist. He began teaching Bible Classes after attending his first service at St Thomas's and became a reader in 1948.

He has preached in more than 25 Lancashire churches and adds: "It's been a tremendous privilege and an important part of my life but I'm getting older now and my legs aren't so good as before."

The Rev Peter Guinness, the Vicar of St Thomas's, says: "Generations of people, some now in their 70s, have been brought into the Christian faith and encouraged by him. Everyone is aware of the immense gift which John has been to the church."